Title: OniAi
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguichi
Studio: Silver Link
U. S. Distributor: FUNimation
U. S. Release Date: Dec. 31st, 2013
Format: Blu-ray / DVD / 12 episodes / 300 minutes
Genre: Harem, Fan Service, Romantic Comedy
Age Rating: TV MA
Overall Grade: C-
Synopsis:
When adorable teenager Akiko is reunited with her big brother, Akito, she’s determined to take her sisterly affection to the next level! But her brocon fantasies are dealt a cruel blow by the arrival of three colorful rivals. There’s a blonde heiress with a fetish for plushies, a boyish beauty who yearns to serve, and a ravishing redhead who’ll stop at nothing to get her man!
Every coy ploy Akiko dreams up is deviously derailed by robes that just happen to fall open, the flashing of “come hither” eyes, or scandalous splashing in the community bath! While Akiko has her hands full staying a step ahead of the competition, poor conflicted Akito can’t help but think: my little sister can’t be this… crazy?!
Commentary:
When it comes to harem anime it is never a good idea to make the younger sister the focal point of affection for the big brother. Please stick to the standards of having just a bunch on non-related women making this niave boy the object of their lust. In OniAi it becomes uncomfortable from the very beginning. As soon as Akiko makes it very clear that she wishes to bed her brother Akito the squeamish monster comes out. It may scream funny to some people, but to me it makes me want to scream “turn it off”. I admit that the way that Akito manages to play it all down is ok and the other girls are great in their equally unique ways, but for this to be a solid top line harem they should have made Akiko the a buffer rather than a vixen.
The production level and anime art styling of the series are slick and very much well developed for the series. The voice acting is solid and almost every bit of the rest of the series is good, but man I just can’t get past the ancestral fixation.
Overall Grade: C-
If this OniAi didn’t look so good and the other characters have such wonderfully rich characters I would have caned this series completely. I can see where there is a fan base for this and also know that many people will find that the brother sister incest think funny, but I just found it uncomfortable and hard to watch. There is plenty of good anime here and I think that it deserves it place on the selves of the harem fan service crowd so if you can get past the brother sister thing I think you will find it a fun and entertaining series.
